The present invention relates to an improved slat for blinds such as Venetian and vertical blinds.
A Venetian blind typically includes a number of slats in the form of elongated thin plates generally made of light metals such as Al or Al alloys. The slats are connected to each other in vertical superposition by means of ladder tapes. By manual operation on a lift cord, the slats are collected upwards in order to open the blind. Further, by manual operation on a tilt cord, angle of the slats are concurrently changed in order to adjust the amount of light passing through the blind.
Each slat is given in the form of a thin metallic plate coated on both faces with opaque colours. Optionally grain pattern printing may be applied to the faces of the thin plate.
A slat for blinds is in general expected to fulfill the following properties.
(I) It should give a rich woody impression and have a highly aesthetic appearance.
(II) It should have sufficient strength together with flexibility high enough to toughly recover from bending and contortion.
(III) It should have a thickness of about 1 mm or smaller but, nevertheless, not lose structural stability.
(IV) It should be impervious to changes in environmental conditions such as temperature and humidity.
The above-described conventional slat does not meet these requirements. First its appearance is rather simple and poor in aesthetic effect. When a blind is swayed by wind, metallic slats frequently collide against each other to generate harsh noises. When used in a wet environment such as a bathroom direct contact of metallic slat with moisture in the air can easily cause the formation of dew as a result of the high thermal conductivity of the metallic material on the slats leads to quick corrosion problem. In addition, the relatively thin construction of the conventional metallic slats is in most cases incompatible with their structural stability and rich recoverbility from bending and contortion.